Ice Age
Ice Age (Japanese: 氷の時代 Age of Ice) is a 3D platformer for the Wii U, released in 2016 and developed by Cogshift Studios. Many gameplay and environmental elements are inspired by the . The game takes place in a distant area of space and revolves around Chris Callum, a recent graduate from the Aeronautic Exploration Academy, the one of his kind chosen to recover his planet's supply of water from Frigeo, an unusual spherical being with ideals of reshaping its universe and taking on different forms based on its ability to instantly freeze and reshape large quantities of water. The player travels through multiple ice-constructed environments while occasionally fighting off waves of monsters and the like while venturing through space. Additionally, the game's music, some of which extensively features drums and heavy beats, plays a big part on particular environments, causing ground-shaking waves and the like. Nintendo eShop Description Take on the role of the brand new character Chris Callum in Cogshift Studios' Ice Age! A fantastic and action-packed game for adventurers, Ice Age has hit on the Winter Solstice of the Northern Hemisphere—the day a new villain, Frigeo, places a maniacal scheme into action! Whether played as a single-player adventure or with multiplayer score-breaking fun, Ice Age is an unforgettable endeavor you will not regret picking up. Features: *Venture through space across beautiful and icy environments to stop Frigeo from ruining your planet's fate forever. *Customize and upgrade your Aqua Pak to personalize and strengthen your water manipulation abilities. *Duel it up online with friends in a deep-space shootout with your favorite custom-built gear. Plot Upon a bright and sunny day on the planet of Fluedaia, with the purple season approaching, Chris Callum is applying for an office job at Patrick's Pencil Production. During the interview, Chris's interviewer leans to the side to fill up his glass of water at the wall, but nothing is poured out, which confuses the two men. The scene then shifts to the other side of the pipeline to the Fluedaia International Reservoir, where the planet's water supply is stored. Construction is occurring here. A young worker approaches the foreman with a report that the exterior pipelines have frozen up. Enraged, the foreman visits the export tank to see if anything is going on. He dives into the body of water and swims into the tank. He enters shivering, despite a perfect 27 °C day, due to the abnormal low temperatures inside the tank. Indeed the pipes are all frozen. The foreman swims up to the top of the tank and begins to tread, and is hoping for warmer temperatures but only gets something colder. There is a wide hole in the roof, and directly below it is an icy, spherical being wearing headphone earmuffs. Its dark blue eyes go a bright shade of yellow, and it begins to spin. A light-blue mist begins to circle around the tank, and as the being begins to spin more rapidly, the water evaporates and appears to be sucked into his eyes as a somewhat visible gas. The foreman stares in horror in the remaining water supply in the almost empty tank as the being begins to spin. All of the water at the reservoir is drawn into the tank and immediately evaporated into the being. The temperature had warmed up to about 40 °C, but it almost instantly returns to a chilly state as the being goes still, its eye color returns to normal and the water supply is completely evaporated and gone. The foreman now stands at the bottom of the tank, hugging himself for warmth, but then the being begins to vibrate, and a figure of the misty gas appears beside him in the shape of an assault rifle as well as two similar hand figures. The gas freezes into an ice figure of an AK-47 and two ice hands, and one of the hands grabs the gun and blasts a gush of incredibly powerful water at the foreman, and where the foreman stood appears a great hole in the tank and a bit of icy smoke. Halfway through his interview, Chris Callum gets a phone call, which he takes without a thought. The call is coming from the Fluedaia Aeronautic Rescue Team, and they say that he needs to visit headquarters immediately. Chris then dashes out of the building and runs to the headquarters as quickly as he can. When he arrives, he is greated by the principle of the Fluedia Aeronautic Exploration Academy, a school Chris took courses in during his high school years for fun. However, the principle apparently saw much more potential in him than the more dedicated students. He shows Chris a recent videotaping of the International Reservoir being drained, the mysterious being emerging from the export tank and launching itself into space. Once the video is complete, they look out the window and spot gigantic ice figures in the sky past the atmosphere, almost appearing to be landscapes. The principal concludes that Chris is to be the one to take down this being and recover all of the planet's water supply, which is clearly being used to create these icy landscapes. Chris accepts and is given an Aqua Pak to collect water with, as well as an instruction manual on how to use it. With that, Chris enters a cannon that will launch him to Cascade Station, Fluedaia's International Outer Space Station, where the water is to be collected as a hole. The launch sequence begins, and Chris is off. Gameplay Ice Age plays similarly in most cases to the Super Mario Galaxy series in the way levels are navigated through and selected. The game's eight Polar quadrants essentially function as the "worlds" of , each with four areas that function as areas. When all four areas are completed per quadrant, Frigeo becomes enraged and a boss stage is bridged and unlocked. The boss stages all function as (at that time) the current base of Frigeo, who has taken on a different form based on an ice makeup. Each form has a unique method of defeat. Once the boss sage is complete, then you gain access to a new quadrant, as Frigeo is guarding the launch pad, but not before you complete an outer space travel stage. Once this stage is complete, you have free ability to travel between these few quadrants. Quadrants are each viewed as a whole much like the world maps of Super Mario Galaxy 2; however, there is no collective map, so you must travel between the quadrants individually. You can only advance to the next quadrant after beating the outer space travel level at the end of the boss stage, but after this is complete, then the boundary between the quadrants is simply a cutscene, and where the boss stage previously was is a cannon that will take you to the next world through the scene. Standard Areas Each individual area is almost built entirely with ice and snow. Navigation of each area is relatively simple for a 3D platformer; moving around in any direction. Jumping is not possible in Ice Age, but with enough momentum you can ascend steep walls and the like. Walking or dashing across snow is relatively simple but you can begin to sink if you stay idle for too long, in which case you will be stuck until you escape by repeatedly attempting to move in any direction. Ice can not be sunken into, but your traction is much lower. If snow is melted, you will generally find an ice layer below it. Any other surface material behaves normally. Death can occur in almost any area, by falling off the map, being defeated by ice figures, being hit by numerous projectiles, falling from too high of a distance, etc. You have a health meter that contains five bars that will count down as you are damaged, with certain things harming you more than others. You will die upon your bar reaching zero. After death, you will lose one life from your life count, which is by default set to three, though more can be gained through the use of particular items. If you lose all three of your lives, you will hit a game over which will bring you back to your last save point, with your life count reset to three. Health can also be regained with the use of certain items. Your health is reset every time you begin a stage. The goal of each area is to collect enough water in your Aqua Pak to end the stage, which varies throughout levels. Your total of water is shown on a gauge on the side of the screen. Water is used up by performing different actions with the Aqua Pak, but once you hit the water goal, your Pak is disabled so you can not use any more up. There is a limited amount of water per area. If there is not enough remaining to reach your goal, your health bar is instantly set to zero after a "Not Enough Water!" message. Once you reach your water goal, the area becomes full of havoc and you much reach an exit pad without dying to end the level. Water can be obtained by defeating ice figures, consuming it from hot spots, which are areas in levels where ice is melted, blowtorching snow or particular ice formations, and some other ways. At the end of each stage, the Aqua Pak is emptied and your water storage count gauge returns to zero. The water is sent to the reservoir at Cascade Station. Boss Stages Boss stages are built similarly to normal stages, while their theme may vary from their quadrant more heavily than each individual stage. While water is not necessary in boss stages, it can still be collected to use as a tool. The objective of a boss stage is to, of course, defeat the boss, who always happens to be Frigeo taking on a different form or figure. Depending on its form, the method of defeat will vary. An additional feature of boss levels is that heavy screen-disorienting waves can come from different directions throughout the stage based on music beats; music in boss levels tends to be very beat-heavy. These waves may slow down your movement temporarily as they cross you, and potentially push you in particular directions. When the boss is defeated, the music will end and you will have the ability to save the game, as you do at the end of every level; however, you will remain within the stage as a cannon opens up. Once you jump inside, a launch sequence will begin for an outer space travel level. Aqua Pak Abilities Outer Space Travel The objective of an outer space travel level is to reach the end of the level without failure. These levels are navigated through similarly to 's , though viewed within a totally different environment and angle. These levels begin when the player is inducted into a cannon at the end of a boss level. Once it is entered, the beginning sequence of the music will play as the cannon activates. The music will then stop, and the player must repeatedly tap a particular number of times in a given number of seconds to fuel up the cannon. If this is not done, the player is kicked out of the cannon and must hop back in; if it is, the player will be launched and the music will resume as the HUD and screen completely change from the normal level style; a third-person view is visible on the TV screen, first-person on the GamePad. The player is placed inside a small UFO, shaped like a disc with the player incased in a glass dome. The player is now endlessly plummeting in the direction of the end of the level, which will end after a few minutes, exact count depending on the level. However, the player must remain alive by fighting off attackers to not only remain flying by not getting hit, but also to gain the fuel points that they yield to maintain a substantially filled fuel bar. If the player is hit enough times for its health bar to hit 0 or the fuel level is not maintained and it hits 0, then the player and music will stop, the UFO will drop, and they will return to the cannon. No life will be lost, but emeralds will be spent, unless the player has none left. For every time the player dies, 500 more emeralds will be spent upon loss; 500 the first time, 1000 the second time, 1500 the next, etc. Within the levels, the player can move from left to right and vice versa or up and down, with invisible borders, to dodge attackers or change their attacking angle. The player can also rotate the direction they are facing; they can rotate 360° and look up or down, which from the first-person camera will change viewpoint and generally change shooting direction. The player eliminates attackers with a variable amount of water; in these levels, your water count is infinite and there is only one way to shoot, no matter your upgrades or other abilities with the Aqua Pak. Multiplayer Controls Ice Age uses the Wii U GamePad as a controller. Quadrant Map Standard Area Aqua Pak Abilities Outer Space Travel Launch Sequence Aerial Characters Protagonists Antagonists Other NPCs Ice Figures Ice Figures are essentially the of Ice Age: minor and numerous creatures that appear multiple times throughout a level in attempt to cause damage or other problems for the player. They are unique in their ice and/or snow makeup. Deep Space Soldiers Boss Fights Ice Formations Areas Standard Areas Outer Spacial Areas Items Battleship Components Additional Merchandise Development Reception Thoughts on this game as of its current development stage? It is a fantastic game that deserves a number of awards! It is a great game that appears to have had much creativity put into it. It is a good game that could use a bit of improvement in certain fields. It is a mediocre and generic game that isn't terrible, but could use some work. It is a bad game that has little creativity and poor construction. It is a terrible game that makes Fantendo look like an atrocious site. Soundtrack Music plays a large role in Ice Age, largely affecting the gameplay of particular levels due to Frigeo's large interest in dubstep, drumstep and similar genres of music. A majority of the soundtrack has either been written by Approaching Nirvana or released by Monstercat. Gallery For Ice Age's gallery, see here. Beta Elements Trivia *Ice Age's release date is the 2016 winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere). Credits Category:Cogshift Studios Category:Original Games Category:2016 Category:Puzzle Games Category:Action Adventure Games Category:Shooter Games Category:Wii U Games Category:Fan Games Category:Games Category:Ice Age Category:First Person Shooter Games Category:Third Person Shooter Games Category:3D Platforming Games